That is apparently the implication from a recently released study by the Pew Research Center, which indicates that fewer Republicans accept one of the basic precepts of biological science – that living things, including humans, have evolved from other forms over time.

That’s right. I’m talking about that radical idea known as evolution, which was first proposed more than 150 years ago by Charles Darwin and his less-famous colleague, Alfred Russel Wallace.

Here we go again. Another new year with expectations of resolutions made. Another year of resolutions not kept because we always expect too much of ourselves.

I guess the most common promise is to lose weight. At least, that always seems to be one for me. I swear to myself, I swear to my doctor and I even swear at the grocery store. It never works. Oh, I might lose five or 10 pounds but, by the middle of summer, it’s all come back to stay on my lower half. Why do we even bother? Then the holidays are upon us again, and even more pounds appear. What to do, what to do.

Yes, I’m still pondering the Christmas mystery of why my husband didn’t give me the stainless steel kitchen trashcan with the removable plastic receptacle and the lid that opens and closes when users depress the foot pedal. My mother says I shouldn’t ruminate on such things, but my mother has a perfectly good trashcan in her kitchen.

No one illustrated that better than Don Balfour, the state senator from Snellville who was indicted and suspended from office this year but is now back in the good graces of the people who run things under the Golden Dome.

One look at this week’s sales flyers and you can see we humans are a predictable bunch. My favorite big-box store had everything on sale for getting organized and getting in shape. And eating healthier, too. Cut-rate containers, the latest in exercise-wear, gluten-free everything for a New Year’s fresh start.

Though I might have spent a few seconds feeling sheepish (are consumers really that easy to target?), I quickly moved on to being inspired. Let’s streamline the garage! Time to regroup our fitness plan! I can’t wait to make a menu and get back on a schedule!

The controversy of Tax Commissioner Kay Allen’s extra compensation from Harlem and Grovetown has generated intense discussion and endless speculation since news of a criminal investigation became public this month.

What is known about the situation appears to be problematic for Allen.

We know that in the last five years, Allen was paid more than $160,000 by the two cities for providing tax-collection service.

She has acknowledged that she entered into contracts with cities to do so and the money was kept by her as compensation for that service.

Here it is almost 2014 and I’m sitting in the living room in the dark. The lights on the Christmas tree twinkle red, blue, yellow and green. My mother says not to question Christmas mysteries – like why my husband didn’t give me the stainless steel kitchen trash can I asked for. But I lack restraint. I ask the question anyway.